Printing mechanisms are used in various applications. One such application is the printing of money orders at a retail establishment. A known money order generating system includes a terminal with a keyboard for entering data and a printer mechanism for printing the money order. Such a system has been sold as the AMOD 2000 system by integrated Payment Systems, Inc. of Englewood, Colo. The terminal of this system may be located near a point of sale location and in some instances may be connected to a cash register. A host system may provide accounting functions and verification functions and may even control operation of the printer.
Known money order generating systems such as the Amod 2000 include a supply of blank money order forms loaded into the terminal by an authorized individual. The terminal is then, typically, locked to prevent access to the blank money order forms by unauthorized persons. Generally, the individual loading the blank forms, enters a pre-printed starting sequence number for the forms that have been loaded. As the money orders are printed and dispensed from the terminal, the terminal maintains a record of the money orders as they are printed. However, the terminal assumes that the money order number is the starting number entered plus the number of money orders printed since loading. The terminal has no way of confirming the number that is preprinted on the money order. In instances where a paper jam occurs in the printer mechanism or some other occurrence necessitates the removal and destruction of one of the blank money order forms from the printer, the information maintained by the host computer is erroneous. Thus, the amounts assigned to a particular money order number will not match when the money orders are returned for reconciliation with a ledger maintained by the system.
Because blank money order forms are negotiable instruments for large amounts of money, provision must also be made to maintain security of the money order generating system both electronically and mechanically. As used herein, the forms held in storage are negotiable instruments in that they comprise completed signature blocks. Access to a compartment containing the blank money order forms must be restricted only to authorized individuals and provision must be made to restrict the ability to pull the blank money order forms from the printing mechanism and any associated feed mechanism.
One problem associated with prior systems is security in the event of a power loss. If power is lost during printing and the chain of blank forms is still intact, an unauthorized party may be able to extract blank forms from the device by pulling the form being printed. Prior systems have used complex mechanisms to trigger pins that are forced into the paper chain when tension is sensed on the chain. Such systems are susceptible to failure and false activation due to their complexity.